A weekend on the Amalfi Coast
Author: Matthew Wilson | Major: Architecture
When arriving to Rome, it was very stressful to get through the airport since I had never been there before and listening to the employees not speaking English. Throughout the first week of the semester, walking around and experiencing side conversations that are not in English and that I don’t understand felt very Isolating and very different, but not in a bad way. I had always imagined Italy and its culture having this very romanticized image that is portrayed in movies, but I came to realized that it is so much more than that.
The Architecture degree requires students to travel abroad for a semester to Rome or a summer in Mexico City. Throughout my college career I was not sure what the main purpose was to the study abroad, but since going I now know why. The study abroad program that I was in got to explore many aspects of the city of Rome, both historical and contemporary, and to be in a city that we have learned about throughout my college career. I was in a studio, which is a traditional project-based class in which we explored repurposing old project and buildings within the city and bringing them into the 21st century. In addition to the studio course, I took Architecture of the City. This class was super fun to take because each week we learned about a specific monumental site and then we would go out as a group to the site to sketch, experience, and learn about the significance of a site in the urban environment and architecture of the place. I also decided to take Modern and Contemporary Rome. This class was very interesting to me because most people only think about the history of the city, and there is so much more to the newer contemporary neighborhoods throughout the city. Lastly, I decided to take a more fun class, To Rome with Love. This class was split into two portions, Italian Language, and Italian Culture. The class aimed to teach us about widely used phrases and word, for example, how to order food. The other portion of the class taught us about different cultures that they have in Italy: politics, food, architecture, people, etc. The classes that I took in Rome were a nice difference to classes at the U of A because all the classes I took involved being able to go out and learn about Rome by walking around and experiencing the city.
One thing with school that was very nice, was that we had classes from Monday through Thursday. This allowed us to have a 3-day weekend to go out and travel and to really embrace the culture. Before arriving to Rome, I was very excited for the culture that surrounds food and coffee. Almost every meal I ate out and rarely went to the same restaurant to experience a lot of different places. This was an interesting experience because throughout the city there are not a lot of international chain restaurants, but almost every place we ate at were local places with only the one location. This made the quality of the food far surpass my expectations. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic still happening, I decided to really embrace the Italian culture and cities. I stayed and traveled within the country, rather than traveling to other countries throughout Europe. The travel within Italy was super easy because of the large networks of high-speed trains throughout the country. It was also very nice to experience new cities and the culture and food that they are known for such as Florence, Milan, the Amalfi Coast, Venice, etc. I thought it was super interesting that each city is known for a different dish, that I had to try. For example, Milan is known for its veal dishes, Florence is known for its steaks, Rome is home to carbonara, Amalfi indulged in everything that is lemon.
The details of St. Peter’s Basilica
Since I am an architecture student, a lot of the destinations I wanted to visit revolved around the discipline and art. There were so many extraordinary museums from famous contemporary architects and then on the opposite side of the spectrum of being able to visit museums within very historic and monumental buildings. It was very inspiring to see some of the roots of art and architecture that everyone learns about and traveling outside of class helped to experience many famous works that are housed throughout the country.
I would one thousand percent recommend this program to every student at the University of Arkansas. The program is a great experience to dive into and live in a completely different culture. Before arriving to Italy, I did not do much preparation. I hopped on a plane with the romanticized knowledge of Italy I had gathered from movies and films. To future students, I would recommend beginning to learn the basics of Italian and the phrases that you might commonly use in everyday life. This would have helped me tremendously during the first couple weeks. There was a little bit of culture shock in the beginning, especially not knowing the language. Being able to speak the language, at least a little bit, would have helped me during the adjustment period of living in a completely different culture.
Overall, I could not have asked for a better semester. Being able to experience a new culture and fully embracing it was amazing and something that I will never forget. From the classes that I took to broaden my understanding of the city that I was living in to traveling across the country to different cities and seeing their own unique art and architecture. The semester was a great experience, and I would recommend the program to everyone that asks.